{"id":126237,"date":"2019-12-24T08:45:15","date_gmt":"2019-12-24T13:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=126237"},"modified":"2019-12-28T00:12:27","modified_gmt":"2019-12-28T05:12:27","slug":"couple-gifts-nearly-2-million-to-entities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2019\/12\/24\/couple-gifts-nearly-2-million-to-entities\/","title":{"rendered":"Couple gifts nearly $2 million to entities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>VW independent\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The family of Earl and Doris Gerdeman announces the distribution of significant charitable gifts from the estates of the longtime Middle Point area residents.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earl Gerdeman was born on a farm near Middle Point and graduated from Middle Point High School as the valedictorian of his graduating class.\u00a0Doris (Meyer) Gerdeman was an Ottawa native and a graduate of St. Peter and Paul High School. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"545\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Gerdeman-bequest-photo-12-2019.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-126238\"\/><figcaption><strong>Shown are (from the left) Delphos St. John Elementary School Principal Nathan Stant; Van Wert County Fair Marketing Manager Quincy Thompson; Van Wert County Fair Board Vice President John Giessler; Shawn Gerdeman, trustee of the Earl Gerdeman Living Trust; John Love,&nbsp;president of St. Peter and Paul Endowment Fund; St. Peter and Paul School Principal Connie Niese; and Aaron Baker of Keister &amp; Baker Law Office, attorney for the estates and trust.&nbsp;<\/strong><em>photo&nbsp;provided<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Gerdemans married in 1956 and both were very active in their communities through&nbsp;St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Delphos,&nbsp;the 4-H program, Ohio Farm Bureau, and Lincolnview Local Schools.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The couple farmed in the rural Middle Point area, where they resided.&nbsp;Earl first served in the United States Army and then for 35 years as vocational agricultural instructor at Lincolnview High School from 1954 to 1989.&nbsp;Doris taught third grade for many years at Delphos St. John\u2019s Elementary School.&nbsp;They were avid gardeners, often giving produce to friends and neighbors.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Together, Earl and Doris left an outsized legacy during their lives.&nbsp;That legacy is now continued with the distribution of nearly $2 million worth of charitable distributions to Lincolnview Local Schools and Delphos St. John\u2019s Parish Foundation (each nearly $575,000), more than $375,000 to Delphos St. John\u2019s Elementary School, and nearly $200,000 each to St. Peter and Paul School and the Van Wert County Agricultural Society (Van Wert County Fair Board).&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VW independent\/submitted information The family of Earl and Doris Gerdeman announces the distribution of significant charitable gifts from the estates of the longtime Middle Point area residents.&nbsp;&nbsp; Earl Gerdeman was born on a farm near Middle Point and graduated from Middle Point High School as the valedictorian of his graduating class.\u00a0Doris (Meyer) Gerdeman was an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-10 03:39:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}